The present invention relates to the field of liquid-crystal-based display devices.
More precisely, the present invention relates to the field of display devices having a bistable effect.
Liquid-crystal-based display devices have already given rise to a vast literature.
Mention may be made for example, in a non-limiting manner, of the following documents:
(1) Europhysics Letters (25) (7), p 527-531 "Critical Behaviour of a Nematic-Liquid-Crystal Anchoring at a Monostable-Bistable Surface Transition" by M. Nobili et al.;
(2) J. Phys. II France 5 (1995), p 531-560 "Surface Walls on a Bistable Anchoring of Nematic Liquid Crystals" by M. Nobil et al.;
(3) Liquid Crystals 1992, vol. 12, No. 3, p 515-520 "Dynamics of surface anchoring breaking in a nematic liquid crystal" by A. Gharbi et al.;
(4) Liquid Crystals 1991, vol. 10, No. 2, p 289-293 "Flow induced bistable anchoring switching in nematic liquid crystals" by R. Barberi et al., which describes bistable-anchoring devices;
(5) Appl. Phys. Letters 55 (24) "Electrically Controlled surface bistability in nematic liquid crystals" by R. Barberi et al., which describes bistable-anchoring devices;
(6) Appl. Phys. Letters 60 (9) "Flexoelectrically controlled surface bistable switching in nematic liquid crystals" by R. Barberi et al.;
(7) Appl. Phys. Letters (62) (25) "Intrinsic multiplexability of surface bistable nematic displays" by R. Barberi et al.,
(8) Appl. Phys. Letters 40 (11) "A Multiplexible bistable nematic liquid crystal display using thermal erasure" by G. D. Boyd et al.;
(9) Appl. Phys. Letters 37 (12) "Threshold and switching characteristics of a bistable nematic liquid-crystal storage display" by Julian Cheng et al.;
(10) Appl. Phys. Letters 36 (7) "Liquid-crystal orientational bistabillity and nematic storage effects" by G. D. Boyd et al.;
(11) J. Appl. Phys. 52 (4) "Boundary-layer model of field effects in a bistable liquid-crystal geometry" by J. Cheng et al.;
(12) J. Appl. Phys. 52 (4) "The propagation of disclinations in bistable switching" by J. Cheng et al.;
(13) J. Appl. Phys. 52 (2) "Surface pinning of disclinations and the stability of bistable nematic storage displays" by J. Cheng et al.;
(14) Appl. Phys. Letters 40 (12) "A nematic liquid crystal storage display based on bistable boundary layer configurations" by J. Cheng et al.;
(15) App. Phys. Letters 43 (4) "Discovery of DC switching of a bistable boundary layer liquid crystal display" by R. B. Meyer et al.;
(16) J. Appl. Phys. 56 (2) "Physical mechanisms of DC switching in a liquid-crystal bistable boundary layer display" by R. N. Thurston et al.;
(17) J. Appl. Phys. 53 (6) "Optical properties of a new bistable twisted nematic liquid crystal boundary layer display" by R. N. Thurston et al.;
(18) J. Appl. Phys. 52 (4) "New bistable liquid-crystal twist cell" by D. W. Berreman et al.;
(19) Appl. Phys. Letter 37 (1) "New bistable cholesteric liquid-crystal display" by D. W. Berreman et al.;
(20) Asia Display 95 "A bistable Twisted Nematic (BTN) LCD Driven by a Passive-Matrix Addressing" by T. Tanaka et al.;
(21) J. Appl. Phys. (59) (9) "Fast switching in a bistable 270.degree. twist display" by H. A. Van Sprang.